Good morning.

Welcome to regular meeting for City Council on Tuesday, September 9th, 2025.

Will the clerk please read roll call the roll.

Councilmember Bailey.

Here.

Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Here.

Councilmember Donaldson.

Here.

Councilmember Gold.

Here.

Councilmember Henjam.

President.

Councilmember Lineweber is here.

He's here.

Councilmember Rainey.

Here.

Councilmember Risley.

Here.

Councilmember Williams.

Here.

All nine present.

So please stand for the invitation.

We are honored this morning to have Pastor Brand Shoop from Story Church.

Thank you.

I was reminded this morning as I was thinking through this about a passage in Jeremiah 29 7 that says to seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you and to pray for it.

For in its prosperity you'll find your own.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for Colorado Springs.

We thank you for the city that you've called us to.

And Lord, we ask that you would bring peace and prosperity and flourishing to our city.

Lord, I thank you that you are a God of justice and righteousness, and your throne is founded upon that.

And I'm praying that this body would be a body of justice.

And your word teaches us this, and that the idea is that justice is love lived out, and that I pray that we would be one body, that this body would be unified and its love for its neighbors, establishing, maintaining, defending, and protecting that which is just, not simply what is popular.

Lord, your word says that we're to bring petitions and prayers and intercession and thanksgiving for all people, but especially for those in authority, that we might live peaceful and quiet lives in all goodness and holiness.

And so, Lord, we pray specifically for every single council member here.

Lord, I pray for Lynette Crow Iverson for Brian Risley, for Dave Donaldson, for Brandy Williams, for Kimberly Gold, for Nancy Henjam, for David Lineweber, for Roland Rainey, and for Tom Bailey.

We also thank you for our mayor and the staff and the all those who are in authority over us in the city.

We pray your blessing.

We pray your wisdom.

We pray your insight and that you would be pleased and honored in what they do to establish what you want to have happen in our city.

Or we thank you for today.

We give it to you all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Moving on to item three, changes to the agenda or postponement.

I don't see any.

Oh, excuse me.

Oh, I I didn't see your name.

Go ahead.

Um I'd like to postpone the CPA vote.

Um, I'd like to make a motion for that when the time comes, if that's all right with you, ma'am.

Can we get to that item?

Yes, thank you.

Moving on to um four consent calendar.

We'll now consider the consent consent.

Madam President.

Madam President.

Yes, Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, I think I pointed this out yesterday.

I'd like to pull off 4BG and uh 4BI.

Yes, they're pulled off.

Thank you.

Okay, well, thank you.

And 4BJ is also pulled off.

Yes.

That's correct.

Um, having those pulled off.

Um, can I get a motion for the consent?

I have a motion from Councilman Risley and a second from Councilman Rainey.

Let's vote.

And it's passed.

Okay, recognitions.

Yep.

Sorry, I hit the wrong button.

Well, all in favor, thumbs up.

We all voted yes.

Thank you for the clerk.

We'll move on to item five recognitions.

Will the clerk please read item five A into the record?

A resolution honoring September 11th, 2025 is a day of remembrance.

We're gonna have Councilman Rainey read this resolution this morning.

Thank you, Madam President, and good morning to all my colleagues and the citizens of Colorado Springs.

This resolution uh this morning that I'm getting ready to read, honoring September 11 as a day of remembrance.

Uh hopefully before I read this, um, we all take a moment this week.

I know there are several uh events around the city uh to reflect on the events of September 11th, but also to the brave men and women, first responders, ordinary citizens that uh on that fateful day uh risked their lives to save their fellow Americans.

Um so with that uh I will read this resolution.

A resolution honoring September 11, 2025 as a day of remembrance, whereas the United States of America was visually attacked on home ground at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and in the air over Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

And whereas nearly 3,000 American children, women, and men lost their lives that day, and we shall never forget the devastation and loss we suffered as individuals and as a nation, and whereas with gratitude, we honor the brave first responders, resolute members of our military, and ordinary Americans who showed extraordinary courage to save others on that fateful day.

And whereas all men and women on duty that day serving in the armed forces, including in Cheyenne Mountain, played a critical role in ensuring the safety of all Americans.

And whereas, as we mourn on this most solemn anniversary, let us also reflect on the freedom and tolerance that define this great nation, and let us reaffirm our commitment to preserving those fundamental values of each generation of Americans to come.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Colorado Springs that City Council hereby honors September 11, 2025 as a day of remembrance and urges residents to live up to the selfless example of the heroes who gave of themselves in the face of such great evil.

Day to Colorado Springs, Colorado, this ninth day of September 2025, sign Council President Leck Crow Iveson.

Back to you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Do we have any prisoner comments?

Anybody in the audience that would like to make any prisoner comments or anybody at the dais?

Anybody online?

I think we all remember where we were on that day, and I think it's it's um a good reminder every year to do this resolution.

So I'm very proud of this council for doing it.

And if um we can all um go up front for resolution picture to remember this day, and then we'll come back up for a council meeting.

I have a we'll vote first, then we'll go to our picture.

I have a motion from Councilman Risley and a second from Councilman Rainey.

Hey, madam president Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks for uh letting me say just a few words.

But I I do want to just recognize all the families uh service members who spent many years after 911 um making sacrifices, uh families while their husbands or sometimes wives were deployed to the Middle East.

Um and some gave their lives in combat over in the Middle East.

Um, and then service uh men and women who were there.

I was one of those.

Uh I spent three years in Iraq.

Uh it was a big sacrifice uh for my family.

And so this has had lasting repercussions in our country in America.

Kids grew up, you know, for years without having their their parents home because of this.

Uh and also the uh the toll it has taken on uh first responders, you know, one of which we lost very recently uh to a cancer, which he almost certainly uh contracted because of his work there at the pile uh where the World Trade Center came down on 911.

Um so it really had a drastic impact on our country.

It's important that we remember it.

There will be uh celebration remembrances on 911, you know, in a couple days.

And I encourage citizens to participate in one of those.

Um so thank you for uh letting me share that and uh thank you to all those who uh served and sacrificed after 911.

Councilman Rainey.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

And I just want to take the opportunity to echo Councilman uh Donaldson's comments.

Um of the things that transpired uh right immediately after 9-11 is um this dedication and conviction to this country at that moment the U.S.

military saw some of the largest numbers of members signing up to serve uh this country, knowing that they will potentially be deployed uh in in the face of evil.

Um I had the utmost honor uh and I will take this with me every day uh to have serve in Afghanistan to have um led troops in combat and to look the enemy dead in the eye uh to make sure that they realize uh the moment you attacked us, uh we could rain hell down on you.

Um and I I do appreciate uh every every American who decided to raise their right hand, take the oath, and uh dedicate themselves to the service of this country uh immediately after 9-11.

So um as I mentioned earlier, there is uh several ceremonies that will be taking place uh this Thursday.

Uh so if you do find one, uh definitely highly recommend if you can get out, uh please participate uh in that day of remembrance.

Thank you, Madam President.

I think we have a vote up.

And the motion passes nine to zero.

Okay.

Now we'll have a ceremonial picture in front of you.

Moving on to item five B.

Will the clerk please read five five B into the record?

City Council appointments of boards, commissions, and committees.

This morning we have several boards and commissions that we have they can had vacancies for independent ethics commission.

We had a vacancy in the independence ethics commission due to the resignation on August 27th.

Council Eyes on Councilman Donaldson and Tom Bailey conducted interviews alongside Tracy Lessing, the city attorney's office, and Commissioner Chair Louie Larimer.

In addition to filling the vacancy, Deborah Center is recommended for the reappointment to the second term.

Councilman Donaldson and Bailey, would you like to offer any comments?

Seeing that we'll move on to the law enforcement and transparency advisory commission, which we call LETAC.

Two vac vacancies occurred on LETAC for district two and district six seats.

Councilman Rainey conducted interviews for six for district six on July 31st, and then joined by Councilman Bailey for district two interviews on August 14th.

Both sessions were attended by Commission Chair Rachel Flick.

In addition, Chris Burns is recommended for reappointment to a second term for the district five seat with support from Councilwoman Hingem.

Um Councilman Bailey or Hen Jim, do you have any comments?

Okay, thank you.

The next is LART.

We had a vacancy on the LART Citizens Advisory Committee due to a recent resignation on August 18th.

Council Liaison's liaison Nancy Hingum and Committee Chair Sally Hibble conducted an interview to fill the ex officio sports industry seat.

Councilman Henjum and myself are the liaisons.

And that seat is Davis Tott with Sports Corp.

And that's it for the vacancies.

So I can get a motion in a second, please.

Councilman Henjum.

Thank you, Madam President.

I have moved, or actually.

I thought I moved.

Seconded that um appointments.

And just simply because we have a number of those volunteers here in the audience today.

Um I would love for them because they are giving their time and service to the city of Colorado Springs to stand and be recognized maybe after we vote to make sure it goes.

I was going to do that.

Okay, sorry about sorry about that.

You're fine, thank you.

Um we have a motion from Councilman Rainey and a second from Councilman Henjim.

Let's vote motion passes non to zero.

Excellent.

Could all of you volunteers please stand to be recognized?

And is there any of you who would um if you'd like to say anything, you're welcome to.

If not, thank you for your service.

We really appreciate it.

Moving on to item 6A.

Um, under Mayor's business, um, we have a resolution confirming the mayor's appointee for the director of aviation.

Good morning, Mayor.

Good morning.

Good morning, esteemed council members, President Crow Iverson and President Pro Tem Reasley.

Um it's good to be with you all.

Um, first of all, I just want to comment to thank you for recognizing our American heroes and 9-11 as a special day for our nation, but also for us in Colorado Springs, being a proud military community.

And to all the residents here today, thank you for stepping up to serve as well.

So I'm here today to request your confirmation of Alex Kovacs as the next director of aviation for the Colorado Springs Airport.

As you know, the Colorado Springs Airport is one of the city's greatest assets.

It's more than a transportation hub.

It is a driver of economic opportunity, a front door for visitors, and a symbol of what we are becoming as a city.

And as you know, it is growing.

We're experiencing record um passenger numbers, the addition of a new concourse, expanded air service, and for the first time international travel out of Colorado Springs.

At the heart of this most recent progress has been Alex Kovac.

Since February, Alex has been serving as the acting director of aviation.

Prior to that, Alex was the assistant director.

He oversaw finances, properties, construction, and helped to position the airport for this exciting next chapter.

He brings with him 16 years of experience at Reno Tahoe Airport Authority, where he earned respect of colleagues across the aviation industry.

That expertise is matched by his commitment to professional growth.

Alex is a certified member of the American Association of Airport Executives and is actively pursuing full certification.

When the aviation director was posted, it drew applic applicants uh it drew 132 applicants from a highly competitive pool out of that process.

Alex emerged as a top candidate.

But beyond his credentials, what truly sets Alex apart is his leadership.

He is steady, he's principled, and he's very collaborative, a team player who listens well, who solves problems and leads with humility and integrity.

Above all, he is committed to the mission of public service.

As director, as director of aviation, Alex will oversee operations, construction, compliance, and long-term planning, while also helping to drive the continued growth of Peak Innovation Park, which is an incredible asset for us in our city.

Alex will represent our city to the world while Steward in one of the most dynamic growth opportunities in our region.

Council members, Alex Kovac is the right person to carry this work forward.

And I'm proud to recommend him for your confirmation and grateful for your thoughtful consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll bring it back up to the dais for comments.

Councilman Henjim.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um thank you, Mayor.

And I just want to say a few words both about Alex and actually about our Colorado Springs Airport.

The last time I flew on a plane, it was in and out of Colorado Springs.

And um it was fantastic experience uh for those of you who fly um for your work or for pleasure.

Uh I think we can all agree that it is much more pleasurable when we can leave from the Colorado Springs Airport.

It's faster, it's easier.

Um TSA is a breeze, and uh and and it's it's just a really good experience.

So Alex, you are uh you are about ready to be, I hope, appointed uh to this position formally, um, having had the opportunity to meet with you and talk with you about some of the challenges the airport's facing and more importantly, the opportunities that we have as an airport.

And an airport is an economic key economic factor in in terms of the economy and the engine uh of our city, and so we need more flights.

I'd love some more direct flights if you can work on that.

We'd really appreciate it.

Um I also just would like to present with you to you.

I had the opportunity over Labor Day lift off to fly in the Colorado Springs Airport sponsored balloon.

And thank you.

And uh and uh it is a tradition that when there's a sponsorship, all of the uh folks who fly the balloon, who support the balloon, who ride the balloon, sign the uh the banner afterwards, and there was some conversation about well, who should it go to, and well, maybe it should go to sports corps.

I have uh I was in I was in the basket with a new employee of sports corps.

Anyway, it ended up realizing hey, I'm gonna be actually voting on our new airport director.

So I'm gonna take this and give this to him.

Souncilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I just want to echo uh a couple of things that uh my fellow colleague uh stated there, Councilman Henjam.

Um had the opportunity to engage with uh Alex on several occasions, uh, and being a member of the uh airport advisory commission, uh, got to see uh and hear some of his vision about how he plans on leading the airport.

Um I think for everyone who's listening in and everyone in the room.

Uh there is a word that Alex does not uh uh like and he's working very hard to make sure it doesn't happen a lot, and that's leakage.

Uh he does not like the leakage that is going to DIA uh and he's imploring a lot of our citizens here to use the Colorado Springs Airport.

Um also uh through his leadership, uh we were able to get uh direct flight to Cancun, and from my understanding that flight is gonna return uh back here in November, and then we've already made uh arrangements for them to come back in the spring of next year.

So uh what I appreciate more than anything is the genuine leadership, being genuine.

So continue to maintain that.

It's gonna be tough, it's gonna be rocky, um, but maintain a steady course, and and I do believe uh that you will be uh in good hands um with folks that are ready and willing to support you to be successful.

So thank you.

Back to you, Madam President.

Councilman Gold Good morning and thank you.

Um really, Alex, I just want to say thank you.

Um a lot of people don't realize that the airport and peak innovation are in the Southeast, it's District 4.

So I want to thank you for your commitment to the Southeast and for driving such a big economic engine in the Southeast.

Thank you.

I have three council members online.

Is there one anyone online who has any comments?

Seeing none, I have a motion from Councilman Gold and a second from Councilman Hingem.

Let's vote and the motion passes none to zero.

I'm sorry, office.

I need to administer.

Yes, okay.

I state your name.

I Alexandro Corracho.

Do solemnly swear.

That I would support the Constitution of the United States.

Constitution of the state of Colorado.

The Constitution of the State of Colorado.

The laws of the state of Colorado.

The laws of the state of Colorado.

And the charter of the city of Colorado Springs.

And the charter of the city of Colorado Springs.

And I will faithfully perform.

And I will faithfully perform.

The duties of the director of aviation.

The duties of director of aviation.

For the city of Colorado Springs.

For the city of Colorado Springs.

Upon which I'm about to enter.

Upon which I'm about to enter.

To the best of my ability.

To the best of my ability.

Thank you.

Good morning, Madam President.

Uh Mr.

President Pro Term.

Council members, I really appreciate this opportunity.

It's the greatest honor of my professional career to be standing in front of you today.

I might have said this before when we were having the conversation a couple of weeks ago, but again, I really appreciate it.

I will do everything I possibly can to be successful in this role and move forward the Colorado Springs Airport.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to item six B.

Will the clerk please read item six B into the record?

Appointment of Daniel Arier to a four-year term of the Colorado Springs Housing Authority Board beginning September 9th, 2025 and expiring April 1st, 2029.

Will the mayor be in presenting this?

Okay, I'm sorry.

Will the chief of staff be presenting this nomination?

Yes, thank you, Madam President.

Um first by the Colorado Springs Housing Authority.

It's my pleasure to read the bio for Dan O'Rear.

Um I don't believe he is here today, but uh we'll go ahead with his bio.

Dan has called Colorado Springs home for nearly four decades.

He sees the Colorado Springs Housing Authority as a vital institution in providing stability, opportunity, and dignity to residents across our region.

Dan's commitment to public service is reflected in his long history of community involvement.

He has served on numerous nonprofit boards in the region, including as chair of the Humane Society, the Pikes Pete Region, Rocky Mountain Care Health Care Services, and the Independent Center.

He has also served with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, CASA of the Pikes Peak Region, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region Foundation, and Innovations of Aging.

These experiences have strengthened his dedication to building supportive systems that uplift individuals and strengthen our community.

I'd also like to thank Councilman Donaldson and Rainey for serving on the selection committee.

If I have no other councilman comments, I have a motion from Councilman Henjam and a second from Councilman Rainey.

Let's vote the motion passes nine to zero.

Moving on to item six C.

Will the clerk please read item six C into the record?

Nomination to reappoint Jim Johnson for a three-year term on the Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board of Trustees beginning on January 1st, 2026 and expiring on December 31st, 2028.

Do you also have the nomination?

Okay, I do.

Thank you.

I'd also like to recognize uh Jamie Brown, Senior Program Officer for the Health Foundation, who's here with us today.

Um Jim Johnson has served on the Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board of Trustees for nearly six years.

During his tenure, he has served as board chair and board treasurer.

He is currently member of the governance committee.

Jim manages the Colorado Springs Office of DPR Construction, formerly GE Johnson Construction, and volunteers for many other local and state nonprofits.

So seeing no other comments at this time, we have a motion from Councilman Lineweber and a second from Councilman Rainey.

Let's vote on sorry, it just takes a while for the online people to the motion passes on an eight to zero vote.

Sorry, it just takes a while for the online people to the motion passes on an eight to zero vote.

Moving on to item sixty.

Will the clerk please read item sixty into the record?

Nomination to reappoint Mary Coleman for a three-year term on the Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board of Trustees beginning on January 1st, 2026 and expiring on December 31st, 2028.

All right.

Mary Coleman has served on the Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board of Trustees for nearly six years.

She currently serves as board secretary, a role she has held for several years and is a member of the board governance committee.

She has also served on the grant making committee.

Mary is a seasoned health care executive currently working at SOL Mental Health.

She has also held roles at Oak Street Health, Colorado Public Education Health Plan, and Centura Health.

And she chairs the Solid Rock Community Development Corporation Board.

Mary is mom to two wonderful children, Austin, a member of Palmer High School's homecoming court just last Friday, and Amelia Emily, middle school volleyball and drama star.

So seeing no other comments, I have a motion from Councilman Lineword and a second from Councilman Rayleigh.

Let's vote.

The motion passes on an eight to zero vote.

Moving on to six E, which is Mayor's updates.

Do we have mayors updates this morning?

We do, thank you.

Um I've got four quick updates for you.

Uh first, we can't avoid talking about the space command decision that recently came down, but for this council who I think knows and certainly people watching online, um, we want to assure you that the mayor remains in constant communication with our federal delegation and is going to DC, as some of you are next week, um, where he will continue to advocate for continued space present here in Colorado Springs.

It's also point important to point out that while we were disappointed in the decision, we do not expect that it will result in large numbers of people leaving our city due to the continuation of operations here and many vital space missions.

Second, I promised an update on our work with homelessness providers.

And the second phase of that effort occurred uh yesterday when Mayor Yemi met with a large group of local philanthropists who coalist around identifying key service gaps in our homelessness system and had great energy around coming together to move the needle on homelessness.

We want to thank all of them for their time yesterday.

Uh third, the state of the city is coming up on Thursday, September 25th at Broadmoor Hall.

It starts at 745 a.m.

and registration closes September 19th.

And I just got these numbers, so I can't resist sharing them.

Our last keep it clean COS event um was sponsored by the Pikes Peak Roadrunners, some great community partners of ours at America the Beautiful Park.

Um in that cleanup, they picked up 52 tons of trash, 23 shopping carts, 37 tires, and seven propane tanks.

So we thank everyone who volunteered at that cleanup.

Thank you.

Moving on to items um seven items called off consent calendar.

Will the clerk please read four BG into the record?

From R2 to MXN.

This is a first reading setting the public hearing date for September 23rd, 2025.

Good morning, Kevin.

Good morning, Kevin Walker, City Planning Director.

Um this item is uh simply for setting the hearing date at your next meeting.

I have a motion from Councilman Risley and a second from Councilman Henjam.

There are no additional comments.

Let's vote on setting the hearing.

I'm sorry, is Councilman Williams was at you?

Uh it's uh it's Councilman Donaldson.

Oh and uh you know I just pulled this off to to bring more awareness of uh this rezone there's just north of Penrose St.

Francis on Nevada.

Um so that I know there was some concern about this amongst the the neighbors and uh just didn't want it to go through on consent and before anyone knows it we're voting on it.

Uh the final time.

So thank you for pulling it off.

Okay, getting it.

Okay, let's vote.

Um we're indicating.

The motion passes nine to zero.

Will the clerk please read item four BI into the record?

The Nordance Cement zoning map of the city of Colorado Springs pertaining to 9.93 acres located southeast of Union Boulevard and Rance Drive at 4625 Ranch Drive.

From PDZ to PDZ.

First reading, setting a public hearing day for September 23rd, 2025.

Good morning, Kevin Walker, City Planning Director.

This is the again the same issue or setting the hearing date for your next meeting.

There's no other discussion.

I have a motion from Councilman Risley and a second from Councilman Lieber.

Elaine Weber, let's vote.

And uh Madam President's Councilman Donaldson again.

And this one, um reason for me to pull it off, but I do uh I'll need to get with Kevin about exactly where the uh conservation easement is on this property.

I think there's there's some question about that.

Uh originally it said to the north on the previous uh zoning, and and we're considering moving that somewhere else.

But uh the north may just be right because that's the flatland.

The part we've moved it to is a very steep hillside, which I don't think anyone could build on anyway.

So I'll get with Kevin on that.

But uh again, thank you for pulling this off.

And it's so that citizens uh are aware of what's going on.

Thanks for really can you vote?

Oh thank you.

And the motion passes nine to zero.

Thank you.

Moving on to 4BJ.

Will the clerk please read 4BJ into the record?

Request to subject a public hearing date of October 14, 2025 for the consideration of the Colorado Swings Utilities 2026 rate case consisting of resolution setting certain electric rates within the service area of Colorado Springs utilities, certain changes to electric rate schedules, accepting conclusions and recommendations concerning the public utilities regulatory policy act standards, certain changes to utilities rules and regulations, and open access transmission tariff and adopting of transmission formula rate initial rates and implementation protocols for color swings utilities transmissions owner filing.

Councilman Hincham.

Thank you, Madam President.

I would actually like to make a motion to postpone this item to the September 23rd council meeting with a require request to send the rate case back to the utilities board and a discussion at that time to remove the um net metering portion of this rate case as a utilities board to have that conversation.

So I'm making that motion.

Good morning.

Good morning, thank you.

Chris Bidlack, senior attorney with the city attorney's office utilities division.

Before you today is Carter Springs Utilities request to establish a hearing date of October 14th for the 2026 rate case.

Today there's no substantive decision being made, simply a request to set the rate hearing.

The rate case proposed resolutions and proposed tariffs were filed with the city clerk, both physically and electronically, and forwarded to city council as well.

And with that, either I or Mr.

Gerhard are happening to answer any questions.

Councilman Risley.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'm curious uh what would the impact be to utilities should uh council member henjam's uh motion to postpone uh go through.

So there um Tristan Gearhart uh CFO Colorado Springs Utilities.

Um first we don't have a uh September Utilities board meeting, so that would push things back um to our October utilities board meeting at the earliest that we have that.

Um next, just from the an overall filing, we have several critical items that are in this filing beyond just the net metering charges.

The one that I'm most concerned about is our transmission terra filing.

Um, those are critical for us to have in place to be able to enter the regional transmission organization, Southwest Power Pool.

The plan is to enter into that as of April of next year.

We need to have transmission tariff filings put in place on the schedule that we've laid out through this um hearing process to be able to make sure that we can hit all of those dates into that market and make sure we're bringing the lowest cost price energy to our customers through participation in that market.

So it would have a material impact to the planning process that utilities has undertaken.

It would.

That's why we brought things to the city or two utilities board at the meeting that we did with this timing.

And again, um a rate case standpoint, um, setting the date for October 14th gives every opportunity to discuss every one of those items that is in that case and make a decision on each of those items that are presented as part of the case individually.

We believe that's the right thing to do inside of this timing, that that allows us to move forward on critical issues.

The one other issue inside of the uh rate case that is also out there is large load tariffs.

We have several entities that are um uh looking into large load service with the city of Colorado Springs, having those tariffs in place is critical and making sure that they're able to join our system as well.

Would utilities be open to the idea of scheduling a special board meeting to discuss this in a way that would not delay your timeline.

If there was um an opportunity to uh Renee Condon, City Attorney's Office, I don't think that's possible because you would have to postpone this and schedule a board meeting and then bring it back.

So you would still impact the timing because it would be pushed back at least two weeks.

We normally have a board meeting the third week of the month, and we don't this month because of the DC fly-in.

So I don't think you could get a special board meeting scheduled um in a timely manner, so this would come back in two weeks to council.

Okay.

Does that answer your question?

It does, yeah.

Yeah.

Council.

Oh, go ahead.

Well, I I guess the the crux of this is the net metering conversation.

And so I don't know if you're prepared to talk about that today.

I know we can't get into the mode of it being a hearing to discuss an item, but uh would utilities be open to the idea of pulling the net metering conversation out of the mix, if that's an appropriate question for me to even ask.

We believe that the case that we brought forward is important.

It's important, and again, not trying to get into all the details of a uh substantive conversation that needs to happen as part of that rate hearing.

But what we are seeing is five and a half million dollars that the existing net metering uh rate structure um does not cover through its cost of service.

So we've gone out, we've done a load study, we have um analyzed the information and the rates that we've currently have in place for our 9,000 uh approximately 9,000 net metering customers, comes up 5.5 million dollars short in uh the revenue that it's producing.

That means that um as a not-for-profit entity, that those dollars come from every other customer to be able to make up that difference.

We believe that it's appropriate that we would bring a case that says, let's take uh address this so that um the rest of our 200,000 plus customers are not subsidizing that five and a half million dollars.

Um, we believe it is appropriate that we bring that before utilities board and city council as something to be uh voted on.

Thank you.

Tristan, if I may.

Um I would like to emphasize that the request and the agenda item today are to set the hearing date.

It was not noticed to discuss the substantive pieces of utilities filing.

Um, so I would ask that we refrain from getting into the material of the filing because we would like to reserve that for the hearing so that all interested members of the public have an opportunity to hear that body of discussion and provide any commentary they may have.

And that's why I posed my question the way I did.

Thanks.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I guess that's my that's what my challenge is is you've kind of package this whole thing with several different components.

It's the net metering piece that I think still needs more discussion.

Um, and I'm just not sure there's enough time for that.

So that's the place I'm kind of having.

I mean, uh, even myself, I had a conversation with you 10 minutes ago about it.

So um so that's my concern is the net metering piece.

Um, and so that's why I'm trying to understand because it's packaged together, and I understand your point, we don't want to deliberate this, but it's the net metering piece that's holding us all up because there's still some confusion around that.

And uh, we have a lot of customers who've been contacting us, and and I myself am a customer, and I'm still a little bit vague about those things.

Sure, I appreciate that, Mr.

Lineweber.

And I think from a procedural perspective with the rate case, we would ask that if there is a discussion to be had that that be had during the rate case.

At that time, city council can elect to approve or disapprove any portion of what was presented.

Um so from a procedural perspective, if council elects to set the hearing date of October 14th, the proper forum for that discussion would be during the hearing, which would inform council of a decision in favor or against what has been proposed by utilities.

So up to that point, we can have conversations about how we might look at adjusting that individually.

We can work with utilities and stuff like that, knowing it's coming.

Once the hearing, excuse me, once utilities filing is filed, that commences the ex parte period that we've discussed previously.

Meaning that at that point we request that city council refrain from discussions about the filing because this is a quasi-judicial proceeding.

And the driver for that is to be sure that city council, all nine members receive the same body of information.

Um we want to be sure that what is presented to one council member is heard by all council members so that all of you are making decisions based on that same body of information.

All right.

Councilman Williams.

Thank you, President Crow Iverson.

Um I just Renee is probably my person.

Um Renee, if you could just explain to me why you don't think it's possible to schedule a meeting between now and then how 24.

I mean, Ben and I had a great conversation about 24 hours notice and the leeway that we have.

So why couldn't we schedule a meeting for next Wednesday when we normally had our meeting?

Well, I think the reason why we canceled the meeting for next Wednesday is that the majority of the board is going to be gone.

So I mean, technically we could that that's not true anymore because some of us are grounded.

There's two that's what I'm saying.

Like all nine of us are available.

Do we have enough time to schedule a meeting next week?

And um so we have two going to the DC fly in and the CEO of utilities going to the DC fly in now.

Okay, so that's new information to me.

Um, because I think the original reason why it was canceled was because more members of council were going to be going to the DC fly-in.

I think technically we could uh schedule a meeting.

I'm assuming people have scheduled other things over that time.

Um, but it is possible to schedule a meeting next Wednesday.

Could we technically schedule a meeting for Friday before the DC fly in?

I'm it's probably a Ben question.

Right.

I mean, I think we probably could because we have time, but we have to have notice of the agenda um out 24 hours in advance of the meeting.

Uh logistically, I don't know if that's actually possible.

That's today's Tuesday, it'd have to be out in two days.

I think it's a possibility.

Um I think you're more likely to be able to schedule it next week.

Um, but I don't actually handle the scheduling.

So I'm just trying to look at all options.

Um, we want to keep utilities on schedule.

I think that's very evident.

Um, this net metering piece, I do not feel as though neither council nor the public has had enough time.

We've had 20 days to discuss it.

We literally had two days before we voted on it.

And um, again, I think that's the crack of the issue.

I found in our pre-hearing procedures that uh subsequent to the utilities filing and before the public hearing, utilities may make the following changes to its filed proposal, provided that copies of any changes are filed with the city clerk and sent to customers who have notified the city clerk of their intention to present witnesses.

Minor corrections or administrative clarifications, the utilities filing, which by the way, we received about 822 this morning.

Supplements containing additional information necessary or appropriate or substantive or substantiate the filing and or modifications which reduce the amount of change requested.

So I understand from Chris, we can't actually vote on anything, but utilities has the ability to take out the net metering, even though I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen unless we do make a vote.

But I want to make that clear that this could happen without a special meeting, and it could happen just based upon the conversations today, but I don't see that necessarily happening.

And um But I think that's a piece of the puzzle that we would we would like to take out in order to keep this on schedule the best way possible.

And council member Williams, um, another option would be to move it forward on the current schedule and then at October 14th at that meeting, um, vote to not move forward with the net metering part of the rate case.

So you can take it out at that point, and you know, it doesn't mean that it necessarily dies, it could come back at the next rate case next year.

Um, but at that time and on October 14th, you could say, you know, we want to move forward with every other piece of this, but we don't want to move forward with net metering.

So you're not locked in just by setting the hearing.

Correct.

I'm just trying to um make President Crow Iverson's life easier when we get to that October 14th meeting.

So but I'll listen to my other council members and see what our options are.

Councilman Hindum.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

So um sorry.

I'm very quick.

In conversations last night and this morning with attorneys about this situation.

Um it is clear that we have a couple of options.

One would be to send this back to the board of directors, which is what I've made a motion to do so that we can pull the net metering and move the case forward.

Um the importance of the timing and other things that are in the rate case that utilities has to take care of.

Uh, would you please pull up the chart that I sent, um, Emily?

What we're not talking about here is the fact that this net metering piece, which we certainly could um remove in the October 14th meeting.

But once the case has been filed, and and to be clear, it has not been filed as of yet.

So I will be talking about the ret uh the net metering today at this meeting.

This chart demonstrates how long utilities has been aware that this challenge of cost in net metering um is is to the company.

And we learned about this at a work session two days before we were to vote on it as a board of directors.

That's an unacceptable amount of time for this board to review and understand this case.

It has been a scramble for me to talk with constituents who have been writing, to talk with um members of the utilities staff about this to talk with fellow council members about this.

So, can we do this um on October 14th?

Sure, we can.

Um, but I'm I'm trying to make sure that we do this appropriately as the board of directors with utilities at that time.

Um, and and this just was it was rushed.

Utilities had plenty of time to notify and to think about its solar customers and the entire customer base.

And um I'm gonna discuss this a little bit and the nature of this part of the rate case, which again I said we learned about at a work session and voted that next Wednesday.

Um there's not been time to discuss this matter.

And I I don't take pleasure in doing this.

Um, but we this has been rushed.

So the bottom line is that many, many families have invested in rooftop and and solar um equipment and reliance on CSU's commitments over the last 20 years.

And instead of penalizing these good faith partners, CSU should be building trust, honoring commitments, and pursuing fair and transparent and forward-looking policies that support clean energy adoption, protect jobs, and strengthen our community-owned utilities.

We talk a lot about trust here and the undermining of trust.

And I have a tremendous amount of faith and trust in our utilities.

This was, I'll give it the best of intention a mistake.

And uh it was not the intention of utilities to run something through.

If I give that good intention, the reality is it still is being rushed through.

So let's stop and let's do this correctly.

And um, and and so I have a motion on the floor to um postpone this rate case hearing so that the we can go back to the board of directors, pull net metering out, set a date that allows utilities to move forward with its other um plans, and then we can deal with net metering separately.

I will say that Tristan, who's coming up to the podium right now, CFO has responded personally to dozens of customers.

I've copied him on emails, responded to every person who's written about the inequity of this.

He's been very gracious.

He spent an over an hour with me and a constituent on Friday to discuss the matter.

This constituent, this um ratepayer, this customer understands the challenge and is simply asking the utilities to work with this customer base for something that's fair and equitable, understanding that there are uh costs associated, but we're pitting one set of customers against another, and it's not okay.

And there are other ways to deal with the net metering.

That's all I would like to do is to deal with this net metering separately and be fair to all of the customer base.

So, Tristan, your heart CFO again.

Um I would just like to respond and say utilities does stand by the case that we have um out in front of as a part of the proposal that's here today.

And uh the graph that's in front of you um does show that increase in customers, which to me is all the reason to make sure that we are dealing with this as appropriately timed as possible because every customer that comes on now under um rate structure that does not accurately represent the rates um as they should be, puts us in a further hole from a subsidy from one uh base of customers to another.

If we were to come back together to meet again, my recommendation as the CFO is to move forward on the case that we uh we already have that's out there.

Does it um rates that we've already put forward?

Those we believe are appropriately set up their industry standard and they address an issue that has inequity between two different rate classes that are out there.

Um I believe that this chart just highlights again the urgency of why we should be moving forward with the rate case on the schedule that we have.

Well, this is a great disappointment to me that that remains your position, Tristan, and um uh especially after the meetings that we've had with folks, and uh um I'm just really disappointed.

I have a tremendous amount of faith in our CSU leadership, and I find this um particular uh stance to be um really disrespectful of uh uh a customer base and an entire utility without reading the um entire page and a half that I prepared around why this is a challenge.

Um I'm I'm really I'm just really disappointed.

And I would respectfully request that my fellow council members move this back to the board for an appropriate board conversation.

I have one person signed up for citizens' comments.

I just want to let him know that we're not we are gonna get through this motion.

This is this extra motion before we get on to that, but the comments um need to stay relevant to setting the rate the hearing date.

Um, but we'll we'll get to that.

I just wanted you to know that we will get we will get there.

And excuse me, madam president, the the motion on the floor that has been uh moved by myself and Kimberly Gold is actually the motion for establishing the public hearing date of October 14th, not for delaying.

And Dave Donaldson's has has a sound up.

But I have councilman Rainey, and then I will go to Councilman Donaldson.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um Renee, I just uh clarity again, because the question has come up a couple of times about having a special session with us pushing this topic back to the utilities board, um, having that discussion at least in the next couple of weeks before we have the public hearing on October 14.

I know next week question mark because you were under the impression uh that several members were going to be out, and that was legitimately discussed.

Um but as I look at the calendar, is there not a way for us to have a uh a special session like the last week of September?

So the issue is that if we send it back to Utilities Board, we will not be setting a hearing today.

So you it would go back to you'd postpone today's vote, which is on setting a hearing um to the next council meeting.

And in the meantime, you would have the utilities board special meeting.

Um I did hear from Natalie Watts that we could schedule it next Wednesday, the 17th if we needed to, but then you wouldn't actually be setting this hearing that you know, we wouldn't be having the resolution you have in front of you today until two weeks from now, and then you'd have to set the hearing out uh 30 to 60 days from that date.

Okay, so madam president, um, and I think what uh colleague uh council member Henjam is advocating is that as we are discussing this, and even if we set a special hearing date, we can still vote on setting the hearing date for October 14.

And so you're basically saying I want to make sure I clearly understand is even if we vote on a special setting the hearing date for October 14.

Once we set that date, you're saying that we can't push it back to have a special hearing.

The the key is that the request for hearing under city code must set a hearing date no less than 30 and no more than 60 days from the request for hearing.

So if this action is postponed, October 14th would no longer be viable.

And based on when this would be brought back to city council, a new hearing date based on figure it in the calendar in that 30 to 60 day window is what would be required.

No, no, no, no, that's not what I'm asking here.

I'm saying if we take a vote right now to set the hearing date for October 14, if I'm hearing you correctly, can we still set a special hearing date specific to the board of utilities?

Which basically means you can't talk about it.

So going back to utilities board would be talking about it.

Okay, track it.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Madam President.

Um I'm going to uh recommend and encourage my colleagues to go ahead and uh and vote no on a postponement and continue on with uh setting the hearing date on the 14th.

On that day, as it's been pointed out, if we want to remove net metering from the rate case, we can do that.

I won't support doing that.

I think this is uh needs to be done.

The the graph that councilwoman henchman has put up shows the reason why we need to do this.

Because uh when we first started off with the the credits for folks or uh ratepayers who have solar at their home, uh and we gave them credits of I think it's uh roughly 13 cents per kilowatt hour.

There were only 50 to 100 um citizens or ratepayers that were participating.

And so it was it was it was it made sense to do it that way with that high rate of credit.

Um because it was a simple, it was a simple way for the accounting or the bookkeeping.

But over the years, that has gotten far out of out of balance, and as I think most on council, but a lot of citizens don't know this.

Utilities now loses about 600, a little over 600 per solar, we'll call them solar or net metering customer, and that is 5.4 million dollars at this point.

And what that graph shows is that it is climbing fast, and we're gaining a thousand to fifteen hundred uh solar net meeting net metering customers per year.

So it needs to be addressed.

Um Tristan has spoken, and I I've asked him, is there different um are you do you stay with this?

Is this still the best way to address this?

And it is uh there's a year.

If we if we were if we pass the rate case when we vote on it on October 14th, there's a year before this uh the change in rates takes effect for net metering customers.

So it doesn't happen uh right right there in 26.

So my recommendation, my request for my colleagues is to vote no on the proposal on the floor now to postpone, and then on the 14th, we can make a final decision on the net metering.

But uh I support it.

You know, I think it's it's too bad.

We wish we could be generous to everyone.

Um, but right now it's a lot and if you think about who has uh well, I won't discuss that, but uh, the right thing to do, I believe, is to uh stop that transition of money from one group of of our customers to another from those who don't have solar to those that do.

Uh just because it's become such a large number of people, we simply can't afford it.

And it's not fair.

Thank you.

Councilman Hinjam.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Um, so again, we can make this change happen in time.

We can have that board meeting in time to set a hearing at our next council meeting.

That is possible, and not and not hurt the process overall for utilities.

But it's really important here that people understand that CSU is breaking faith by changing agreements after years of urging residents to adopt solar.

Customers feel that CSU has moved the goalposts on them.

Adoption has grown dramatically, as you've just heard and seen.

From 2012 to 2016, there were a thousand solar customers.

2017 to present, over 9200 with a thousand coming on every day.

Even yesterday, people were meeting with putting solar on their rooftop, not knowing about this, not having any idea about this.

This is why this is important for us to discuss this as a board before waiting until October 14th.

Every day, people are putting solar on their roofs.

CSU has seen this trend for years, but only presented its cost shift case three days before utilities board meeting, and then voted immediately to advance the rate case to city council.

Solar customers received no meaningful preparation or outreach.

In fact, they got an email that afternoon or the next day after our board vote, essentially pitting them against the other ratepayers.

We heard have heard from many of those folks.

The rushed rollout creates the impression that CSU is pushing through a predecided plan without transparency or good faith engagement.

It's bad optics and it sets a bad precedent.

So that's a separate issue for this body to decide on.

So we can do it on the 14th, but it delays that entire process and continues a narrative which put put pits the remaining customers against these 9200 folks who in good faith have been a part of building infrastructure into our energy grid.

Thank you.

Can I offer um one small clarification?

Um during the ex parte uh period, council members cannot talk to anyone about this.

But that doesn't stop ratepayers from reaching out to utility staff and getting clarification.

So ratepayers can continue to talk to staff at utilities in order to find out more information about net metering.

And ratepayers can come on October 14th and give their opinions because it will be a public hearing.

Councilman Donaldson.

It's okay.

Yeah, thanks, uh Madam President, and thank you to our attorney for pointing that out.

I was gonna ask that question.

Um I think it's uh unfortunate to say that uh utilities is uh seeing solar or net net metering uh ratepayers as adversaries or something like that, which was just said that that's just not true.

Uh utilities is simply trying to charge the the fair amount to each customer.

And we it it's a little bit of a detailed discussion to go into it, but Tristan could do it as to why the rate is too low currently, or we're losing six hundred dollars per net meeting customer on average.

And so no one is seeing net metering customers as adversaries or or uh trying to be uh unfair.

Honestly, utilities is trying to be perfectly fair and say, well, we've been undercharging, and unfortunately, a year from now, in 27, we're we're gonna have to correct that.

But you'll have a year to uh make whatever adjustments uh can be made.

Uh and and get and uh there's time um before that happens.

And my understanding is there's over the last couple of years there were some things going on in the legislature which uh encouraged or it caused CSU to postpone coming forward with a change because they were waiting to see how that was gonna all work out.

So you know, I think that's that's just unfortunate to cast it as if there's some uh plot here when really what it is is an attempt to uh charge the fair amount to each customer, and it's not right that some are paying more, and I would say a lot of the customers who don't have solar are some of the poorer customers that we have, and they can't they they haven't made that investment because they can't, they rent their homes and things like that.

But utilities has to charge more to cover the loss from the net metering customers, and so uh you know if Trista has anything else to add on that, I would you know ask them to do that, but we we should not spin it that uh CSU is doing this uh out of some scheme or plot.

That's simply not true, and uh you know that's disappointing to hear councilman Lineweber.

Oh, I am so sorry.

The reason I was looking at that, Councilman Line Weber, I have Councilman Williams before you.

I'm trying to manage all the online as well.

So can she please go first?

I know that's you're you're doing a great job, President Curry.

Thank you.

And and I think this is one of those things, and that's why there's nine of us, because um, from my stance, I think that the utility has known for 20 years that that that was the case.

So at this point in time, I realize we're gonna have to to have this conversation and make it up, but 48 hours is not enough time for the conversation.

In my opinion, 48 hours is not good governance, and I think we all want to do our best to be as transparent as possible and getting through this process.

And I think we've used our time wisely for 20 days, but I don't think 20 days is long enough to undo something that we've been having conversations on for 20 years.

So I would like to second Nancy's motion.

I would like to do what I normally do in the private sector, defy the the laws of of calendar and math physics, and hopefully get a meeting between now and a time everybody goes to DC.

And I know that we have a wonderful one-page memo, so I don't know how in depth it would have to be, but I would support bringing this back to utilities board, pulling out the net metering to have a robust conversation both with the board and with the community and see where that ends up as opposed to a 48 hour conversation.

And and then we can I can feel as though I've done my job as a board member to be as transparent and open as possible as we get through this process.

Thank you.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I just want to get back to the format question, and uh because of what we're really talking about here, um, is that we are scheduling a hearing to talk about this.

And today we're talking about this.

So at that hearing, if we were to pull net metering, okay, which is an option, how does that impact utility and how could that be could we could we bring it back in to being a rate case at just that at a later date?

So at this hearing coming up, if we decide that we have not had enough time to really talk to our constituents to stuff like that, we could yank the rate case, take care of all the other stuff that is very vital to to get done, and then handle the ret rate case separately.

Is that an option?

And how explain the impacts of what that would might look like.

Sure.

Thank you, Mr.

Line Weber.

So presuming a hearing date of October 14th is set.

Utilities would give its presentation opportunities for council comment, public comment, and all the like.

At the conclusion of the hearing, one of the last steps taken is where I run through what we call the issues for decision.

And that is where we get city council's initial vote, yes or no on each of the individual proposals that utilities has made.

At that time, council can say yes or no to the net metering as proposed.

If five members say no, that would defeat utilities proposal on that topic, not the entire rate case.

That does not prevent the utilities board in the future from saying go back and explore net metering.

It does not prevent utilities from providing an alternative or a similar proposal in the future.

But as of the date on October 14th and then final approval on October 28th, if there were to be a no vote that would end the net metering for this proposal, like I said, it would not prevent future proposals coming forward in future rate cases.

So then I would like to ask my board members to consider moving this forward.

And kind of like I I will basically state that I will be voting no for the right case right now.

So you know that that no vote's coming, unless you can really, I mean, you can't even convince me because you won't even be able to talk to me.

So today, my decision will be that it would be a no.

So but I will say yes on all the other components.

Okay.

That way we can keep the business of utilities moving and get this going.

And I think that would be the best choice at this time.

And so I would encourage my fellow board members to consider that.

Councilman Donaldson, do you have your hand up again?

Or is it still up from the last time?

I don't want to miss you before we move on.

I'll I'll uh hold.

Okay.

If we can move to a vote, that'd be great.

Yes, that's exactly what we're gonna do.

Um I have a motion from Councilman Henjam and a second from Councilman Gold to postpone the hearing date.

Do I need to read all of that?

Let's go.

Do we have a public comment?

Does that come before?

That's gonna come after this because this is a separate vote.

I've got it handled.

I'm just asking.

Thanks, Bye.

Yes, vote.

And the motion fails on it.

Three to six vote.

Okay, now I am going to move on to public comment in opposition.

Um it's Mr.

Cliff Kotnick, and I will just remind you again that the public comment, um, please keep it relevant to setting the hearing date because that's what we're doing today.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you for listening to me.

Um I'm gonna spend just a moment trying to paint the picture.

Um I'm a homeowner in Colorado Springs.

Earlier this year, I analyz my electric use, the nature of my home, got with some solar installers and installed a solar system.

I estimate that would save me about $900 a year, and that system was activated in April.

On August 21st, I received an email that told me that utilities felt the rates were unfair and rectified that I should expect to pay $600 more per year.

So I ran those numbers.

And instead of being able to recover my cost that I had just taken out of savings in 15 years, I wouldn't even cover half of the cost in 15 years.

As a matter of fact, I'd never recover because it would take 42 years, and I'd have to live to be 113 years old.

So I looked at this and I tried to get more information.

I saw that at the bottom it said this is going to utilities board.

Oh, I get the email on the 21st.

It went to Utilities Board on the 20th.

So I called Colorado Springs Utilities and tried to get more information, and I couldn't get anything more than what I got from the email.

So I emailed my council member, Mr.

Donaldson, and he passed my request on to Mr.

Gearhart.

Mr.

Gearhart sent me some information that looked like it was in the right direction.

So I tried to put together a spreadsheet, and I still have some open questions for Mr.

Gearhart, which I assume he'll answer when he has some time.

But the whole thing to me seems so rushed.

If I can't put together a spreadsheet to figure out what's going to drive my rates, how can you folks be making a decision this quickly on something that I've spent two weeks trying to understand?

So I would encourage you folks, one to come up with a more equitable solution for folks that are timed into a loss like I am by implementing this in a more equitable way, and to take your time and understand what it would be like for a ratepayer like me.

Thank you.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I want to go back well.

Um my fellow colleagues, Councilmember Henjam and Councilmember Lion Weber.

I I totally agree uh with both of their perspectives.

Um with that being said, uh, I want to make sure I clearly understand another piece to this.

While setting a date today prevents council from engaging the public, what's the implications of utilities and all its leaders and employees from engaging the public?

Is there any implications to that?

The ex parte limitations apply only to city council.

Um presuming the hearing is set for October 14th.

Customers are encouraged to reach out to utilities.

Utilities can engage with those customers with the goal of answering as many questions as possible.

So there's there's no limitation on customers' ability to engage with utility staff.

Okay.

Here's what I highly recommend because I heard your comment just now uh as far as members can contact utilities.

Let's not do that.

Let's get in front of this as a leadership team, and how about utilities set a couple of different engagement points where you invite the public to come to an event.

I don't care if you do one, two, ten.

But get the public to come to you and you provide yourselves as an opportunity to answer questions to the public.

I mean, you can do as something as simple as um going to each district and setting up something.

You have a lot of time to do it, but let's not put this on the the public.

Uh let's let's lean forward on this one.

Let's lean forward as the leaders that we are in the city.

Everyone now knows online in this room through email that once we set a vote today, we will not be able, we as in council will not be able to speak with the public on this uh topic.

But now we do know that you all do not have that restriction.

So let's set some dates, let's get some serious engagements, let's answer some questions.

And that way, once you have engaged the public in that manner, no one can't say that you didn't offer.

So I I think that is something that we gotta start doing.

Um let's lean forward on this.

Let's not put this on the citizens.

Let's lean forward, set some dates, invite the public to come out, answer questions, and then hopefully they can make a decision one way or another, and at least we can say, hey, we've provided the opportunity for serious engagement.

Thank you.

Councilman Henjam.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Rainey.

It's a great suggestion.

I actually uh requested a meeting with uh uh affected folks prior to this today.

Um again, it was very short period of time.

Uh the leadership declined to do that.

Um so I do hope that they will follow through with your recommendation and have more than one meeting and really listen to folks like uh uh I've forgotten his name, I'm sorry, the gentleman who uh just came to speak, and the many others that I have talked with in the last couple of weeks about this, who understand the bigger challenge that utilities is facing.

I don't think anybody's in disagreement around the cost of this.

The question is how to fairly and appropriately manage this situation, and there are lots of other ideas and ways that these customers um can be addressed, including in the communications with the customers.

So should this pass to October uh 14th rate hearing?

Again, I'm sure we will have quite a hearing at that time.

It gives folks uh more of an opportunity to um well by the way, I mean I'm I'm assuming that my fellow council members have received emails from these folks, and they are all every single one of them individually written.

These are not mass emails, they're about their own situation, they've done the research, they know what their situation is, they know what their investment is, and they are feeling betrayed.

So it is a incumbent upon utilities to address that portion of our customer base and to do it appropriately.

So I I appreciate the the the request.

I trust that our utilities um staff who I do have a tremendous amount of respect for and have been very supportive of this utility for over four years now.

It's the first time I've ever been disappointed or frustrated with poor communication and how this is um the how this has come about.

Um so again, I will be voting against this um and uh but assuming this passes, I I I do implore our utilities leadership to revisit how we are managing this cost reality.

Thank you.

So I have a motion from Councilman Donaldson and a second from Councilman Risley to establish a hearing date for October 14th for the rate case.

The motion passes seven to two.

Moving on to item A, more utilities business.

Will the clerk please read item AA into the record?

Intergovernmental agreement with Arkansas River Power Authority.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you, Madam President and Council.

I think we have a couple of slides.

Okay, and we don't have that presentation loaded in our system, so let me just take a second if I can pull it off the internet.

Mr.

Frankelino, how are you doing today?

Good.

How are you doing?

It's a beautiful day.

It is just for the record, Mike Francolino, Chief Customer and Enterprise Services Officer.

While we're waiting for the slides.

Thank you, Emily.

So uh good morning, uh council.

I'm here to present our IGA with the uh Arkansas River Power Authority, also known as ARPA.

And um essentially what this is an agreement for us to for ARPA to use our supply chain and essentially reduce their cost.

So if you can go to the next slide, Emily.

Thank you.

So uh you know, obviously we have an ongoing commitment to work with the Arkansas Valley.

Um, and really this is an extension of that.

So we have been working with the Valley in terms of water, using water wisely, using um how to control water flow and so forth.

And really, this is us working with ARPA in terms of controlling their costs on the electric side.

And so through our partnership through this agreement, we're really and through their members, they have six members, which you can go to the next slide.

You can see um really what we're doing here is Emily.

If you can go to the next slide, thank you.

Oh, I do, okay.

Thank you.

Oh, there you go.

Thank you.

Um so it through our intergovernmental agreement, really this extends um our buying power that Colorado Springs utilities has in terms of throughout our supply chain and leverages our spend in terms of giving them lower lower pricing through uh our supply chain and allows them to save about uh on average about ten to fifteen percent on their electric materials and supplies, and so this is really an extension of our commitment to the valley and leveraging our supply chain to lower their cost through their six members or for their six members.

That's pretty much it.

It's a simple presentation.

Uh we talked about this at our at our board meeting, and really happy to answer any questions.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I just want to elevate and say I just applaud utilities for being forward thinking about how to be a great neighbor.

Um, you know, it's tough like the stuff like this that really communicates to a lot of these smaller communities that we really do care about them.

We really do care about them, and we we recognize them as part of our region, and we want to do this together to make a stronger community overall.

So I can't like I can't elevate this enough and in just saying good job.

Thank you, Mr.

Leinweber.

Seeing no other comments.

Do I have any comments online?

I can't see your hands because of the PowerPoints.

I don't see any comments online.

Um I have a motion.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh no, madam president, no comment.

Okay.

Um I have a motion from Councilman Donaldson and a second from Councilman Henjam.

Let's vote.

And the motion passes none to zero.

Moving on to item 8B, will the clerk please read item 8B into the record?

Pursuant to City Code 1.4.105, Colorado Swing Utilities Employees request for city council consent to run for Ellicott School District 22 Board of Education and if elected, request to waive the requirement to terminate employment.

Good morning, Council President, Council President Pro Tem, Council members, Tracy Leslight with the City Attorney's Office.

I'm here to introduce a request by Michael Ferguson with Carol Springs Utilities to run for Ellicott School Board District 22.

The city code does require employees to either terminate employment or get a waiver from city council.

I believe the employee is here if you have any questions.

And my understanding is there's no objection from utilities.

That is correct.

I see no comments from the dias.

I have a motion from Councilman Hinjam and a second from Councilman Lineweber.

Let's oh motion passes nine to zero.

Thank you for serving.

So I can restart my moving on to item 9A.

Unfinished business.

Will the city clerk please read item 9A into the record?

Ordinance number 2516-69, amending ordinance 25-31, section five, appointing Natalie Lovell a city auditor and prescribing her duties, compensation and tenure in office and superseding and repealing all prior ordinances inconsistent with the provisions of this ordinance and removing the requirement of certification as a caller as a Colorado certified public accountant for the position of city auditor.

Good morning, Myra.

Good morning, Council President, President Pro Tem and Council members.

I'm Myra Romero, Chief Human Resources and Risk Officer.

Um I have not planned a presentation for today, but I can take any questions that you all may have.

Looking online, I councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I guess my question is um really to establish who are you to make policies on employee hires and stuff like that.

What qualifies in other words, when we look as council looks to trying to qualify getting the right person for the right job, who in city government should we be turning to to ask that question?

The human resources department.

So you're really the experts now.

So I'm looking to establish your credentials because you have established here and you have advised us to reconsider how we look at this position.

Right.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

So what authority do you do that with?

Uh we do it with benchmarking, we do it with um classifications.

I mean, we're doing this every day, day in and day out.

I mean, we are the experts that take a look at this all of the time.

Um, this is what we do.

And so we wouldn't really like look to anybody else in city government or look outside of city by we could maybe look outside, but you're really the authority on helping us decide what requirements we would have for any position that we would be looking at, correct?

Correct.

And then you know, we are coming to the department or the hiring authority, the hiring manager, and we're asking, you know, what is the role, what is it you're having them do?

Um, and we take that back and we say, is that in alignment with what it is we're recommending?

And that's what we've done here.

Which I think is just perfectly appropriate.

And and I just I don't, I think somewhere along line, that kind of got lost that we have turned to the experts of the city to advise us on what we should do with this role.

And our experts, which you are, have told us that yeah, we should reconsider this.

And that's okay for us to change our mind.

Would you agree?

I do agree.

Thank you.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President.

You know, we've had um extraordinary amounts of uh discussion regarding this CPA requirement, and we have been um inundated to say the least with um email communication from constituents um urging us to um not lower the standard.

And to be frank, I don't agree that it's lowering the standard.

I think it's broadening our perspectives um by adding a C CIA certification.

Um, but I think a lot of what's happening is very process-oriented that folks are um our constituents are displeased with the lack of transparency in the process.

And as counsel, um, even though not all of us were on the body at the time of the decision um was made, we we fell short.

Um so with that in mind, I I think in order to make a more informed um decision.

Um, I actually moved that we postpone this to one of our January 2026 council meetings um so that we can have the proper amount of internal dialogue to move forward in a way that builds public confidence for this position.

Um, this is the the city auditor.

And the mission of the city auditor's office is an independent, objective, and comprehensive auditing program from operations of the city.

I commend Miss Lovell for her um willingness to to take the heat, quite frankly, um, because if she can do so at the highest level as the city auditor, then we will have faith that um any office within the city of Colorado Springs can be audited and governed accordingly.

So again, I make a motion to postpone to one of the January 2026 council meetings.

Councilman Donaldson um we're finally back at our house for those who are wondering where I am now.

So and and for citizens just to know why why isn't Dave there today?

Um my wife Paulie had knee surgery this morning.

So uh, but that's done and we're back home now.

Um, you know, if if there's no other second uh up there yet, you know, I'll I'll second that uh motion.

And I do have a couple of questions for uh for um Myra, because I think it's very important is this is being uh presented at the moment as in well, uh HR just decided to review what what's necessary for our city auditor, when in fact it was it was this city auditor herself after being hired uh with under the express condition that she would achieve her CPA once she was in office, then brought some uh research to council leadership and to HR that other cities don't require a CPA.

What we didn't know at that time is that our city auditor had failed the CPA exam and had not told me uh or other council members about that when she was recommending that we remove the CPA requirement.

And so while we may make a decision, you know what, uh a CIA, a certified internal auditor is fine.

You know, maybe either of them are okay.

That is a very disappointing way for the process to have played out, and I think that's part of what uh councilwoman Gold is getting at is just the process is odd.

And so, you know, if Myra would wants to comment on that, she can, but I know that's that's how it happens.

I don't I don't really need to I don't want to put her on the spot.

Uh it was not a process initiated by HR to review this.

It was a process initiated by our city auditor herself.

Um for whatever reason, you know, we didn't know this that she had failed this the CPA exam.

And she's the one that brought this forward.

And for me, that is that is not good.

Uh, you know, the city auditor should have the highest levels of uh trustworthiness and integrity, and and just reveal that to me and others, if she's gonna make a recommendation to remove this uh qualification, then uh at least let us know.

Hey, and under full uh disclosure, I have failed the test in the past, but I don't think uh it makes sense to continue.

So I'm uncomfortable with that.

And then part of the justification from HR and from our current city auditor is that other cities don't require a CPA.

They they say a certified internal auditor qualification is just fine.

You don't need to be a CPA.

But what I would ask um Myra is did you do research into even if they don't require a CPA, how many of them hire it anyway?

Because from what I have seen, the majority, even if they don't require it, they hire that because that demonstrates a level of qualification of professionalism of uh drive for excellence, abroad, abroad um knowledge that they that other cities want in their city auditor.

So did we look into that?

I would ask HR.

Did we look into even if it's not required by other cities?

Do how many of them uh hire a person with that qualification anyway?

Councilman Donaldson.

Um we did look at that, and I'm gonna turn to my senior comp analyst to see if we can pull up what the exact number is that actually um hired for that, even though it wasn't a requirement, but that's something that we'll have to look at to see if we have the exact number.

But but there were you're right, there were um entities that did not require it as a minimum requirement and did still hire it um for candidates that came in.

So that is an accurate statement.

Yes.

And in the 15 cities, and in the 15 cities that I looked at, the three of 13 that it weren't two cities had a vacancy, so it couldn't look at those.

The other 13, 10 had CPAs, even though it wasn't necessarily a requirement, the three that didn't, two of them were already CIAs, and one was already a different certification.

And the ones who weren't CPAs had a tremendous amount, like decades of experience in the auditor's office doing many, many, many audits.

And that is not something that our our current auditor brings to the table.

Um so those are my only questions for HR.

Thank you.

So it does appear that of the 27 entities that we looked at, 11 of them hired with a CPA.

If I could, so 27 that didn't require a CPA, 11 hired it anyway.

Yes, that's correct.

And how many of those hired uh CIAs?

Do you know?

Or what were the qualifications of the others?

It's a mixed bag across the board.

We'd have to take a deeper dive.

Okay.

Because and this is perhaps what we can we can do if we have a little if we if we do uh not remove the the CPA requirement today, uh and and we postpone this, is we can really look, and perhaps we can have an impartial body really look at what makes sense for Colorado Springs, because I I might be suspicious if any other city hired someone who was neither a CPA nor a certified internal auditor, nor a certified fraud examiner, nor any other pertinent uh qualification as their city auditor.

We did it under one condition, and I've talked to former members who voted yes and are no longer on council, and they wouldn't have voted this way.

That would condition was for the person hired uh to go ahead and get her CPA, which you know, apparently which is is what's on the table now, otherwise they would not uh have voted for her.

We had other candidates that had both CPAs, CIAs, all the qualifications.

But thank you, Myra.

Councilman Hingem.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Uh, so I want to kind of revisit the whole process.

And um, I hear councilmember Gold's concerns and uh and actually the concerns of many, many people who have written city council who have concerns about trust in the process.

Um I simply want to revisit that and uh for speak for myself only.

Um the position was made vacant, when the former auditor retired.

I would say at that point, we missed an opportunity.

We meaning collectively we, the body that was elected at that time, HR, to revisit the job description and to take a look at the job description at that time and determine is the job description written the way it is, what we need now based on where our city auditor's office is at.

I believe there was um a desire for, you know, this was an opportunity for new leadership and continuing to move our auditing office into the future.

We did not take that opportunity.

And I will just speak for myself and take full responsibility that I wish I had said at that point in time.

Let's stop and let's take a look at this at this office and at the uh job description.

We did not do that.

When we completed the interviews, we had interviewed a number of candidates, and we we, meaning the majority of the body at that time, uh believed that Ms.

Lovell was the best candidate.

I will also take responsibility for not slowing the process down and saying, oh, well, we want to hire her, but the job description says it requires a CPA.

And so let's just require her to do that.

We we could have and should have stopped at that point and had other conversations about how to move forward with this.

We did not do that.

I personally take responsibility for that.

Um when Ms.

Lovell approached us about her reasons for believing that a CPA was not appropriate, and I by the way, want to say again, assuming intention on somebody not sharing information of something that happened 11 years ago is not appropriate.

She did not um she she did come to us and she asked us, and we could have stopped it then, and we could have explored at that point, and we did not, and I take responsibility for that as well.

That then gave us the opportunity.

We we did then start looking at what is an appropriate qualification.

And uh based on feedback from the public, um, actually, we said, yep, there needs to be certification.

So there was a determination, we talked about this at the last meeting.

A CIA would be appropriate for this candidate at this time.

It does not address the role itself and the job description itself.

But here we are, and isn't it kind of ironic, the auditor's office who's responsible for looking at waste fraud and abuse and you know, all things ethical, and now we're having this concern about trust.

I think this is actually an opportunity.

And while I respect councilmember Gold for wanting to listen to the public and rebuild the trust, I don't believe that delaying this even further helps that because we have a person hired in the position now.

This is where Ms.

Lovell and the opportunity here is there is a giant spotlight shining on her as the city auditor, shining on the city auditor's office, and shining on this body for ensuring that she actually follows through and does the job that's necessary for the city auditor's office.

Actually, a lot of people don't even fully appreciate or know what our auditor's office does.

This is an opportunity for us to learn.

Ms.

Lovell, um, share with me, and I will be starting to attend the auditors uh the audit committee meetings.

Uh, there are two liaisons to that.

Anybody can come, anybody in the public can come, anybody on council can come.

I will start attending those because of the visibility and because of the lack of trust or the concern about trust that has been raised.

Um what she shared is that that at the next audit committee meeting next week, she's going to be introducing the new strategic plan and begin the discussion of the annual audit plan, which by the way, has never since I've been on council, um, hasn't been presented to us in the public or or we haven't voted on it.

That will change.

This auditor and the audit plan will be coming in front of this body on a regular basis.

At a work session, there will be great visibility and great um attention to what is happening in that office.

That is a very good thing.

How we got here, not happy about that.

I take responsibility for that.

Wish I had done it differently, wish this body had done it differently, but we didn't.

So I'm going to take responsibility for that, and I'm going to say now we take this situation and we turn it into an opportunity.

So believe me, public.

You have this has been raised.

It's good.

And we have a spotlight on.

Any curtains are lifted, we're going to learn more about the auditor's office.

And trust will only increase if we do this the right way, which I believe we will.

I don't believe delaying this is a good thing.

I think we need to move forward.

Allow her to get going on her job.

She's been dragged through the mud because of this personally.

This is not about her personally.

This is about our process.

So let's keep it focused on that.

Let's uh she's going to get the CIA.

That is a commitment.

If we pass this ordinance, she will follow through.

If she doesn't pass, then we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

But we're all paying attention.

We're all paying very close attention now.

And um, and so I would uh request that my fellow council members not vote to delay this.

We we vote, we make the CIA the requirement, and we pay very close attention to this auditor and to this auditor's office going forward.

Thank you.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President.

And um thank you, Councilmember Henjam, for your leadership and accountability.

I think that speaks volumes of your character.

Um, and I'm gonna roll that into um I also think it speaks volumes of Miss Lovell's character as well, um, to bring up so early that uh uh that there could be room for change within the auditor's office and be willing to take that heat that comes with with that change.

I think it really speaks to your integrity.

Um and I do want to emphasize that this decision has been made personal when it should be about process, it should be about um um professionalism, and Miss Lovell has um been attacked unfairly so when this should be about a professional process.

Um I I urge my colleagues to consider the process, consider the public comments or excuse me, public comment via email that we have received.

Um consider the lack of trust that folks have within city government.

Um we did miss an opportunity, and let's make this right.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I just have a couple of points I want to kind of rear reiterate.

Um I was in the process.

Um I was part of the process of high hiring Natalie.

And and through that effort, it it became really, really clear that what we needed most in the audit department was someone who would had courage and leadership to really help us look at our government and find ways to become more efficient.

And um, to my knowledge at that time, I never really connected the dots or understood the whole language of CPA and all these other.

I mean, I kind of, you know, as a small business owner, I hire a CPA to do my taxes.

But I would never consider hiring a CPA to help me look for efficiencies in my business.

It's the wrong, it's the wrong thing.

And I and when we, as we've kind of gone down this road, and the reason why I chose to hire Natalie was because I saw courage and leadership.

And here, this very thing, who would have the courage to bring this up but someone that has those characteristics, which is exactly why I chose to hire her.

Having this courage to look at her own position, her own department, and look for ways of efficiency for future generations and as we go down the road, this is exactly what we need.

We need to be constantly looking at our city government and saying, you know, is there a better way to do this?

And we should never fear asking that question, even if we're involved.

I just take really a offense to some of the things that were mentioned about um Natalie's character, particularly around this test tasting thing.

It was over a decade ago that she tried to take the test once.

And from what I understand, most people don't pass the CPA the first time around.

And because of her job situation and other things, she she discovered she didn't need the CPA for the places that she wanted to go.

And it just didn't work for her to take it again, from what I've heard from her.

And um, but I do think that at any point in government, I have to be willing to also say and take the courage to say we need to do this the best way, not the way that we've been doing it for 20 years.

What's the best way now, moving forward, and and really kind of taking a stance on this role in primarily looks at leadership and how to run our city government more efficiently.

Neither one of those require a CPA.

There's much there's little that a CPA will help with those.

And so for those reasons, I think that we need to move forward on this and make the right choice to make a decision of changing how leadership within the office of our auditors department is done.

And I fullheartedly support this effort.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um trust is uh a word that has been used several times because of the uh auditor's office.

And I can't emphasize enough that when it comes to audit, when it comes to the public, and when it comes to making a change to an ordinance, trust is critical.

We're not talking about a year ago, and I want to make sure I emphasize that for everyone online and everyone in this room.

We're not talking about a year ago.

We're talking about an agreement for employment that transpired four months ago.

So I get a job, I make an agreement to get that job, and then I come before the body that gave me that job and request that the one stipulation in the job requirement be removed.

Whether we decide to go with a CISA, a CFA or CIS, whatever that looks like, and I want to make sure that it doesn't fall on any deaf ears that when we talk about following a process that we are very clear that everyone involved in that process, that was four months ago.

And here we are as a new body addressing something that was just shortly voted on.

And where I draw serious concern is that within the ordinance, it stated clearly, everyone can look that up online, that the requirement is two years to achieve.

That's it, two years to achieve.

So why are we sitting here four months later?

If the requirement is two years to achieve, why are we sitting here two years later?

Excuse me, four months later.

My colleague uh council member go, I think her point should also be taken into serious consideration here, and that is the fact that because of the scrutiny that has transpired over this particular topic, uh, we should look closely at this.

And what better way to look closely at this is by bringing in a third party.

It doesn't matter if it's the audit committee or some other third body, to make sure that we're making the right decision.

And if that decision so happens to be the requirement of a CISA, so be it.

And then we as a body will vote on that and we will move forward.

But I find it hard to believe, and I find it hard to digest the fact that a vote transpired four months ago.

A little more than four months, four months and some change now.

For someone to obtain employment, an ordinance with requirements within states clearly two years to achieve.

And then all of a sudden, that was a mistake.

Let's go back and re-re look at this.

Sure.

Let's re-look at it later, but not four months after getting employment.

And it's really unfair to everyone who actually applied for that job.

There are other folks who actually apply for that job.

And even though this happened in a previous body, and that previous body decided she was the most qualified at the time.

Once again, a decision, a calculated decision was made.

And I'm going to repeat that.

A calculated decision was made to put in the ordinance two-year requirement.

Two years to receive the certification.

So with that being said, uh, I can't emphasize enough.

Uh to look at this and to make sure that we're not missing the boat on this one.

And once again, I'm not saying that the CPA is firm fix.

I'm just saying that if we are going to go down the road of a CISA, a CFE, whatever that looks like, that we looked at this carefully.

And I'm gonna go back to the very beginning of my comments.

The reason why we want to do this correctly is so we ensure that the public trust is always there.

Because right now I'm a little leery with that word trust.

Public trust must be there.

And I can't implore that enough right now if my council members, please, please, let's delay this.

Let's make sure that we as a body are doing the right thing as we move forward.

Back to you, Madam President.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh again, Madam President.

Um, you know, it's been said a few different times that uh, you know, our city auditors' reputations being dragged through the mud.

None of this needed to happen.

If the city auditor had had simply fulfilled what she agreed to do, which was hey, I'll get my CPA within two years.

So everything that's come about is the result of her not doing that, of her suggesting, you know what, other cities don't require CPAs, we shouldn't either.

Um I want to read you uh a sentence from the uh global standards uh which applies to internal auditors, and it was adopted by the office, our office of the city auditor.

Quote internal auditors must recognize and avoid or mitigate actual potential and perceived impairments of their objectivity.

And and this is kind of what uh councilman Rainey was just referring to.

There is a perception out there that um our city auditor is not is acting in her own interest, right?

That this was recommended to be removed uh because she had failed the test in the past, or for whatever reason didn't want to do it now.

Our city auditor said she doesn't run from challenges, right?

She she made some head on.

That was quoted in the Gazette.

Well, here's this very simple answer to this is just get the CPA.

Just do what you said you were going to do.

This is a terrible way, I would say, for the city auditor to come into office.

If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't want to come into office like this.

I would say, Jesus, just let me get my CPA.

Um it really does, it's it's an awful way to start off.

So I I think the right thing to do is for us to not not remove the CPA requirement today and insert a different one, but at the very minimum uh is simply to postpone this and have an impartial body, one which won't benefit from uh changing the CPA requirement, look at it for us.

Perhaps ALGA, the association, which one of my colleagues is has uh and I've communicated with them too.

I called them up and talked to them.

Um, they probably have some some uh uh firms which can evaluate what would be right for for Colorado Springs, or we can have our city audit committee or members of it or another body look, but at least then the recommendations will come from a totally disinterested party.

Again, I mean, this is this is I think it's very bad the way this is playing out.

Um especially there there's no office more important than this one for the leadership to there be just no questions about their motivation, their integrity.

Our auditor is going to be looking at other departments in the city, other organizations, and coming back to council and telling us uh everything is above board.

You know, and and that's kind of the question right now.

If this was just a mistake, if if it was simply the city auditor um didn't think it was important that she had passed uh that she had failed the CPA in the past, and that's why it wasn't mentioned.

That should to me that shows bad judgment.

You should realize that well, this is gonna this can become an issue.

I should just put this out uh on the table up front.

The same that we do as council members when there's an even an appearance of a conflict of interest, even an appearance, we're we're required to declare it.

So I'm gonna I I support the recommendation or the motion by uh uh councilwoman gold that we that we postpone this or table it.

So I have a motion to postpone to January 2026 council meeting with a motion from councilman gold and a second from councilman Donaldson.

Let's vote on the postponement, Madam President, Sarah Bruin, City Attorney's Office.

If you're gonna postpone those dates certain, I recommend that you specify what meeting in January.

The January was on my tab.

I'm not sure what that means.

Uh 13th or 27th.

Those are the two.

Which means if you want to speci specify a date, although January does limit it.

Um so councilman Gold, who made the motion would like to postpone to January 27th.

I want to make sure I got that right.

Um council meeting.

That is what's on the vote.

Turn a questions vote.

And the motion of postpone fails four to five.

So going back to the original um motion.

I need to move.

I have a motion from Councilman Risley.

I believe I had a second from Councilman Mine Weber before, but it got is that correct?

Yep, councilman Lion Weber.

Um for this amendment.

So let's vote.

Moving on to item 10.

We have no new business.

We have no public hearing.

Moving on to 13, we're going to move on to citizens' comments.

Not on today's agenda.

Citizens will have three minutes to share your comments.

I have a list of those signed up.

I will read down.

Please come forward when your name is called and keep your comments, Jermaine, to city business.

So this morning we're starting with um Lee Brooks.

Good morning, Lee.

There you go.

Now it is.

Sorry.

And my name is Lee Brooks, and I'm currently homeless, but I read the paper a lot.

And um I just wanted to um, and it pertained to reference that I was a single mom and and had my own house and my own name and everything, but um, it was very hard to afford daycare after school.

And so there was a uh big concern in Colorado about daycare and and how affordable, how not affordable it is.

Um I'm just trying to uh talk on a uh implementation uh implementation of um of after school um program that is city funded or or um state funded um for free for for even the middle class that's having really hard time with this.

And then have them where they can be there at six till six in the evening, and using maybe church volunteers to bring in volunteers, but at least one um employee for the school so that they can have it locked up properly and there and um we have a problem here and in with our kids that the AI and the smartphones are dumbing down the kids.

They don't um these college graduates can't even do um an interview or say what they can do for that company for five years and five years, but how can they make that company better?

They barely can read.

Um they got their college degree by um AI and um and really plagiarizing a lot of their um work.

So they really don't know if the internet goes down, they don't know how to do a job, they don't know how to solve a problem, they don't know how to have a new idea.

AI is just something that's already been done.

And so um I just uh plan for the hopefully that the kids will have that chance to help each other in their homework and just um to um have my new ideas to help each other.

Thank you.

Next up we have Derek Shetrone.

Hello, I did actually write a speech for this body.

I appreciate you very much.

I can tell that a few of you very much care about the community, and I'm very grateful for that.

Um I'm here today because there's some cameras over off of Austin Bluffson Academy.

These aren't standard cameras, they're not red light cameras or traffic cameras.

These are artificial intelligence based cameras.

Uh does anybody on this body have any artificial intelligence understanding how this infrastructure functions?

No.

My advice would be to find a technical advisor who could adequately express how artificial intelligence functions.

I've taken a great deal of time with my businesses over the years.

I actually used to own a business myself before I was raided by the FBI.

Um, actually, for the community, I'll tell you guys about that.

So uh let's see here.

Google.

Google uses third parties to coordinate and decide how to present information to you.

This third party has basically all the same powers as this body here does.

They get to vote on what information is most presentable or important to that community sector that might be searching for that, whether it's this individual or myself searching a piece of information, it's targeted based on the AI, specific to that search and the searcher.

So this information is tailored.

Um my concern today is that you have implemented traffic cameras from Flock Security.

You did not inform the community about these cameras.

These cameras use artificial intelligence through an infrastructure that is not publicly available.

You cannot access these cameras.

This infrastructure reports based on facial recognition, traffic patterns, all kinds of things.

It can even distinguish when a person's drunk driving.

Let that sink in.

That's allegedly drunk driving.

What if I'm just dizzy and it flags me and now I've got a DUI, which has happened.

Or an Aurora, Colorado, 1.4 million dollar lawsuit was uh just awarded to a family of four who were falsely arrested for stealing license plates thanks to the artificial intelligence false flag.

What's my point?

The third party decided that.

It wasn't the community that decided it.

It was a third-party member of Flock Security.

Uh why was I rated by the FBI?

Well, I contacted Google to pay for advertising, and I spent 200 to get that.

I was making 10,000 a month doing computer repair.

Artificial intelligence is one of my primary focuses.

I really enjoy it.

Um and I contacted Google, and what they did was is they said computer repair is offensive.

That was what they did.

Now you can look me up.

My phone number is 719-695-2871.

That's my new repair company.

It's mobile repair.

And on there, I posted a picture that explains that whole situation.

Google deleted me.

Then when I contacted Mayor Yemen, when I contacted Governor Polis, when I contacted the police, the FBI, the CIA, everybody told me that there was nothing they can do because it was a third party.

And I agreed to that.

Well, the issue with that third party is I couldn't speak to that third party or what they had done to my company.

They deleted the $10,000 a month income, put five people unemployed, put me on the streets.

I'm now living on the streets in my RV.

Thank God I had the RV.

All right.

But I'm living on the streets in my RV now, thanks to Google deleting my business.

I have a question from Councilman Rainey.

Yes.

Just one moment.

I would love that question.

The problem is that third party was in control.

And now we have flock security cameras, which we don't own those cameras.

You contracted that.

Who puts third-party members in control of our information?

And with that, that's my concern.

Councilman Rainy.

Thank you, Madam President.

You mentioned those cameras on the corner of what intersection again?

Austin Bluffson Academy.

And they're also on I've gone and located them all around powers and plat as well.

So I don't want to speak on their behalf, but uh ironically, uh, this has come to my attention before.

And what I end up learning is that um this is not CSPD cameras.

These are actually something that uh actually no public works.

They use it for uh a variation of different things.

And what I will do is I will get with public works uh to make sure that they can maybe uh I don't want to speak on their behalf, but clarify what exactly those cameras are utilized for.

I know, I know what they're used for.

And is all over the country.

They have uh 49 states that they're running with over uh 500,000 units that have been.

I I've looked into Flock Security, they're also providing immigration data to the federal government currently, which is illegal in the state of Colorado.

And uh to your other point, and I I would love to see Sam over there.

If I can get your name and contact information, uh you asked a question about who knows about AI.

Um, I'm very proud to say I'm a senior defense executive for AI ML company.

Uh so I will be more than happy to sit down with you and discuss how AI from an operational IT cyberspace perspective, or even just a cyber infrastructure perspective really works and what the government can and what they can't do.

So I'd be more than willing to sit down with you.

I'd love that discussion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Samra is right there with the blue.

Uh-huh.

Um, next up we have Will Starks.

Bless you.

Good morning.

Hey, good morning.

How are you doing?

My name is Will Starks, and I represent what we call the umbrella, which is on one body ENT, K Land Community Cares, Women of Impact, Youth of Influence, Moms of Wisdom.

And I really just want to be here.

It's gonna be multiple people.

It's a group of us that's gonna be speaking.

We just want to speak on the positive things that have been going on in the community instead of shining the light on a negative, which they try to shine on us.

So basically, you know, we are we one of our spaces is at the Citadel Mall.

And um, you know, the Citadel Mall has a negative impact on it from the community's eyes.

But we have done some really positive things inside of the Citadel Mall.

One of the things we've done, which we'll speak to later is the June Team Festival.

Um, one of the founder members of the June Team Festival.

I'm also one of the founder members of Men of Influence, uh, which is which is our group that brings uh gangs and gangs together to create lines of communications uh between them to go out there to create to not have small bees become big beefs, basically.

So yeah, we've done a lot of good things in a community, like I said, that you're gonna hear about that we have partnered with some people and including um some some council people up here.

Camberly has helped us, uh Nancy has helped us, David has stepped in with some things we have.

Senator uh X that has stepped in and helped us, Miss Regina, Dr.

Regina uh has stepped in and helped us.

So uh we definitely appreciate everybody and we look forward to hearing y'all.

It's uh for y'all hearing us a positive things.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you all for being here today.

And you said something that I I really want to speak on, and that is the narrative of um Citadel Mall being negative.

Um and I really want to address that because it is indeed a narrative, um, a narrative that is propelled by folks outside of the Citadel and South Side um area.

Um oftentimes, um, especially in the media, things can be associated with the Citadel when it in fact happened nowhere near the Citadel or not on the premises of the Citadel.

So um, and I especially want to applaud uh you for your work with Juneteenth and some of the negative messaging that occurred around then.

Um you did a spectacular job handling such negative PR in a very professional way.

Um, and continued kudos to the work that the umbrella is doing.

Appreciate that.

We're gonna continue the good work regardless.

So Tiny Smith.

I'm uh Tiny Smith, uh Coach T to call me.

And during my three minutes, I'd like you guys to watch this two-minute video.

I don't want to be a man honor the influence.

I want to be a man of influence.

And so the only way you're not gonna be afraid of the people that's in your community is when you sit down with the people in your community.

One body ENT.

They have the men of influence, the women of impact, the mom of the wisdom, and they have a youth group.

For the next generation of kids that are upcoming, I see one body ENT giving them a space where they can be heard.

It's about having a family, a second family.

And that's what One Body ENT is and does for me.

When we bring it together, our impact is so much greater.

For me, it's exciting to be a part of it.

They have the whole total packet, and everybody can help everybody.

And with the One Body ENT, they have opened up a lot of things for our seniors.

They are left alone in a lot of cases.

Many of them feel like they don't have any purpose to live anymore.

I felt like my job at this stage in my life was just pretty much to wait to die.

And clearly that's not true.

But now, every Friday, they are coming and they are excited just to be in the room, you know, uh having conversation with other seniors.

That is just absolutely beautiful to see that happening.

Mayor, real quick.

I'm also up under that body, one body and t is the C-Land Community Cares uh neighborhood association, which I'm the president of, which is also under that umbrella, and we are here to say to actually try to change the narrative of what some people, you know.

I don't know how many how long you guys have been in the city, but there was a while, there was a time where there's a uh dirty cloud, so to speak, over Caland community, and we're trying to change that narrative.

And uh, we are also we are doing that by doing a lot of community events.

We you know, we utilize the park over there.

We've had uh last week but Saturday, we had the uh the uh street art festival at the at the park, and I mean we're doing a lot of community work going through this, you know, community picking up, cleaning up, and just doing a lot of different things.

So we're trying to change that narrative.

So that's part of the one body and tea umbrella, which we're up under.

Thank you.

Kevin Woodley.

Okay, Craig Harvey.

Hello, council, my name is Craig Harvey.

I'm an official member of the Men of Influence.

I also sit on the board of One Body ENT as well as the Knob Hill Urban Arts District, and to kind of echo some of the things Will said, we're here to uh bring a positive message to the council today of appreciation and um kind of update um the council on some of our um organizations.

So the men of influence and one body ENT are dedicated to fostering a positive change through events, education, empowerment, community engagement, and societal reentry.

As an official member of the Men of Influence and a board member with One Body ENT, this overview highlights some of our recent achievements, ongoing collaborations, and future plans for the community of Colorado Springs.

So to discuss some of our recent achievements, our organization hosts 12 annual events each year, serving as pillars of tradition, partnership, entertainment, and education in Colorado Springs.

Some of those notable events are the annual multicultural black history program, our Southern Colorado Juneteenth Festival, our honoring heroes program, and our Global Day of Compassion.

These events bring together a diverse community.

We celebrate cultural heritage and honor our local leaders.

Let's talk about our teen nights.

This summer marked another successful season of weekly teen nights held every Friday from 7 p.m.

to 11 p.m.

at the Pikes Peak United Way Family Success Center.

These gatherings provide a safe and welcoming space for our youth to engage in sports, music, entertainment, socializing, art education, and we also provide them with a home-style cooked meal.

More about our annual celebrations.

The 12th annual Black History Program is held in February.

And again, it's a celebration of history and culture and community.

This year marks our fifth annual Southern Colorado Dune Team Festival.

This year, it was held at the Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs.

Despite the challenges we face, both financially, the slander in the media, and the different uh struggles we face this year, we'd like to note that for the past five years, there have been no arrests or no acts of violence at a festival of of this size.

So we feel that's a great achievement to celebrate, right?

Thank you.

Um some of our community collaboration updates.

Um we're working closely with Concrete Couch, John Adams Elementary School, Kayland Neighborhood Association, and the Knob Hill Urban Arts District.

And we'll talk a little bit more about the Sand Dumb Dunlap inspiration wall that we're currently um working on.

So again, we're just here to update the community about one body ENT, the men of influence, women of impact, moms of wisdom, youth of influence, Kayland Community Cares, and we are still neighbors.

So we appreciate your time.

We thank you kindly and we appreciate the continued support.

It means the world.

Thank you.

Jennifer Smith.

My name is Jennifer Smith, One Body ENT co-founder and director, um, women of impact founder, um, and I'm representing moms of wisdom for my mom as well as a founder.

Um, just here to say thank you for all the work that you guys have actually um took time out to to listen, even today, or just to come and celebrate with us as Will named everybody.

I won't name everybody again, but I definitely appreciate the support.

On behalf of Moms of Wisdom, they do meet every Friday from 12 to 2.

So if you're 55 and up, and you want to hang out with them on this Friday, they'll be at the Citadel Mall.

And you're welcome to join them.

Women of Impact, we have our group of about 15 of us, not as big as MOI, but we come in small numbers, but big impact.

So we're just here to thank you guys as well.

And as for one body and tea, we've been here before.

We're gonna keep coming and thanking you guys for your support.

And the work will never stop.

It'll be consistent as our motto says, and we'll bring everybody together as one body in a positive space like we're doing right now.

So thank you for your time.

Thomas Pontoja.

Hopefully, I said that correctly.

If not, you can correct me.

Good morning, City Council.

Thank you for your time.

Uh, my name is Thomas Pantoha, born and raised right here in Colorado Springs, um, proud Hillside residents and um program manager at Concrete Couch, also a member of the Men of Influence.

And uh just want to echo my colleagues here and say, you know, thank you for all of your support and all of your service to the community.

Um, we really are working closely with One Body ENT and John Adams and all sorts of different other organizations just to bring the community together to have fun, to see each other as neighbors, um, regardless of race, creed, color, political ideology.

Um, and that's what we're really here to do as Concrete Couch is to build community through creative projects.

Uh, one of our latest projects is the Sam Dunlap Wall of Inspiration Mural at the corner of Circle and uh Circle Drive and Fountain Boulevard.

If you guys haven't seen it yet, we just want to invite you out to come check it out, even to come work on it.

Um, we're gonna have a work day on Saturday, September 27th from 10 to 1.

If anybody on council would like to come join us and put up some tiles that we made at Teen Night or at our uh street art festival in Caylan we just had.

Uh a lot of a lot of positive messaging, a lot of positive information on the tiles, and it's just a really really beautiful uh piece of public art.

Um, and also, too, if y'all haven't been to the Concrete Coyote Community Park in the Hillside neighborhood, come on out.

We're doing a lot of amazing programming projects and all sorts of stuff.

We're taking this site back that was a concrete dump site in the Hillside neighborhood and turning into something positive for families and kids in our community.

So again, thank you for your time, and we hope to have you join us at Concrete Couch and with One Body.

I have a question or comment from Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Just a quick question.

You can answer it, or anyone who's already spoken.

There's a website with all the events that are upcoming on that website.

Okay.

Is that can you please leave that with Sam?

I greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Cool.

Thank you so much.

Teresa Donnelly.

Thank you very much for your time.

I wanted to at least first say that I'm honored to have bear witness to Colorado Springs making September 11th a day of remembrance as a military veteran.

I appreciate the recognition and the sacrifice that veterans made during that time and since after.

So thank you very much for that entry into Colorado Springs history.

Also, uh this is my first time uh being uh privy to a city council meeting, and it really is uh overwhelming to see the massive respect uh responsibility you have to take care of an entire city and and all the citizens therein.

So I also appreciate your work and I'm honored to be here.

Um but my name is Teresa Donnelly and currently the president of the Concrete Couch Board of Directors.

And um I'm here to uh like everyone said, bring some good news.

Um coming off of the things that were discussed uh among the council members today, um a lot of hard decisions to make and things to do for the benefit of all.

But we're here to let you know that uh we, as nonprofits, that's Concrete Couch, One Body Int, Men of Influenced, K-Land neighborhood community, um, we're all coming together to do good things for the citizens and for our communities.

Um we just had an event last weekend uh called the Street Art Festival, where we were bringing um awareness to John Adams Park, where there's currently a mural uh representing local leaders, and we're gonna have that mural revamped so that people can know that from our community comes uh wonderful leadership, and that could come from any of our any of the city citizens.

And also given that um some of the things that are rolling down that may not that will affect us, also to know that from the ground up, these grassroots uh communities and um nonprofits are working together um very closely to make a community that is strong for our children, like Miss Lee had mentioned in her concerns about the children not knowing things and not participating in things.

Um the programming that concrete couch has, for instance, we have a citizen science program that we really want to gear to homeschoolers.

We have a environmental education program and science, uh I'm sorry, summer programs that are open to everyone, and we try to keep those free and accessible to everybody, and that's just as important.

So we're also here to say that um we're all working together uh for the betterment of the citizens so that they can grow into um better society and Colorado Springs, maybe be on a council member too.

And thank you for your time.

Dustin Hooth.

Thank you and good morning, President Kerr Iverson, uh President Pro Tem Risley, uh esteemed council members, uh, and fellow community members.

Uh I'm here today to thank you for your work in contributing to an ecosystem and culture that exists within the city of Colorado Springs.

And that enables and empowers and supports the efforts of community groups, nonprofits, and most importantly, individuals to create and improve their experiences in their city and in their neighborhoods.

To introduce myself, my name is Dustin Huth.

I am uh I have the honor of being the newly appointed executive director of one of Colorado Springs' most beloved and established organizations, Concrete Couch.

Uh, and I am proud to say that we are partners and collaborators with One Body ENT, Men of Influence, Women of Impact, and all the other organizations that are working with you all uh to the embetterment of our area in Colorado Springs.

As you know, we are the owners and stewards of Concrete Coyote Community Park, which Thomas had mentioned, almost eight acres near Southeast Downtown, which with the help of volunteers from the community, including groups like the ones that are here represented today, have been working hard to transform from a once blighted land uh into what I believe is on track to become one of the most culturally significant and valuable community and amenities in our region.

Um which, if awarded, would enable us to put on 120,000 worth of free daytime family-friendly concerts at this park, um, which translates to 10, 4,000 events over the course of three years.

Um so this is a concert series that would result in a significant infusion of positive activity, awareness, and resources into an area of our city that has a tendency to at times be overlooked for that type of thing.

Um so we were notified that our application was advanced to a nationwide text-to-vote uh campaign uh round of the of the application process.

Um the point of that is to show the foundation that this idea is actually supported by the community and that it will thrive and and find success if they were to fund it.

Um and so there is a text-to-vote campaign that I'd like to make you aware of, which ends on Monday, September 15th.

Um, and uh if it's all right with uh with the council, I'd like to ask um for everyone to be able to take a moment quickly to uh put in a text to vote for that.

Um, what you would need to do is is uh take out your phones, and I can give you the number and the um keyword that would enable us to vote for Colorado Springs to receive this opportunity.

Is that okay?

Uh the phone number is 877 409 5525.

That's 877409525.

And the keyword to text is call springs, so C O L S P R I N G S.

Uh C O L S P R I N G S.

Um, and so if everyone was able to help us by voting for this, um, and also sharing this opportunity with friends and family, media outlets, school districts, and anything else you can imagine sharing with.

Um, more information is available at concretecouch.org as well as the granting entity website, levitt.org forward slash vote.

So thank you all very much for your time and thanks for everyone here that has come to represent our community.

Thank you.

And that was called C O L.

Belinda Gardner.

Hello, excuse me.

Hello, and good morning, everyone.

I am Belinda Gardner.

I am with the uh Cayland Neighborhood Association.

I am vice president, and I as well am here to uh let you guys know about all of the polit positive activities and things going on in Caylan.

So we um, as you heard them mention earlier that we just recently had the street art in the K, which was a wonderful great event, and it was um really good for the kids.

They were able to have hands-on activities, um tile making, painting, just lots of different activities there, and it was a wonderful event.

And we are using our park at John Adams is our neighborhood park, and we're using it as much as possible in four different events and different activities.

Um our neighborhood association, we meet on the second and the fourth Thursday of every month.

Um, so we meet twice a month, and we meet at 2551 Airport Road.

Um, uh suite number 107.

And I am just a little nervous, so sorry.

Um, so our first effort as a neighborhood association was to clean up some abandoned and raggedy, just to say for the word, um, raggedy apartments that was in our neighborhood.

They were located on bogs and prouse, and they were directly across the street from our elementary school.

Um, those buildings had been abandoned for ages, I think about 20 years or so.

And we went to our representatives, Senator uh Tony XM as well as Regina English.

We walked up and down the street, we walked around the corner, we we showed them everything that the roofs were caved in, the windows were busted out, and all manners of different things.

The parking lot was raggedy, and with speaking with them and with the effort, um, those apartments are now fixed.

The the um parking lot has been paved, the roofs have been repaired, um, there's fencing, and it's very presentable and um feels a lot better, a lot safer, and it looks a lot nicer.

Um, we also have going on right now in our area is the public works department is working on our roads.

Um they're working on the curves and the right-of-way, if anybody knows what the right-away is, and that effort was also um happening here in 2025 because of the neighborhood association and a member in particular who went before the public parks department and he spoke with them regarding how bad our roads were in our neighborhood.

Um, that effort and um that it was supposed to be in 2027, but because of that effort, it has now started already in 2025, and it's a lot of work being done there on the roads.

Um we have several events coming up in the C Land, and we have I'm so sorry, and we have um the um a major cleanup.

We have been doing a cleanup effort in our neighborhood monthly since April of last year, April of this year, and we are trying to do a big effort, a lot larger cleanup, and we will be focusing on the Caylan Plaza for any other word.

Um, and that is our airport and um airport and circle.

No, no, no, we could wait for us.

They also failed to start the clock earlier, they lost another guy with 40 extra seconds.

Thank you.

They moved me for four people back if we're sir.

I can I can handle the meeting.

Thank you.

Please hold your um comments.

Um, next we have Dee Smith.

Yes.

Hello, everyone.

Um, I won't be long.

I just want to say um the reason why we came up here, we just felt it was important for us to um make sure that you guys know that you guys are appreciated too.

Um we've been through a lot over these last few years, and um the wave our public officials had stood up for us and advocated for us and spoke up for us.

Um I feel like it's important for us to say that too, because a lot of times we come in with negativity, and so we just wanted to make sure that um we spread some of this love out because as our organization we lead with love, one foot in front of the other.

And so um, and so I had a conversation with some of the kids that we had um at the park on set on Saturday, and uh Senator Exxon was there, and we just was clowning around or whatever, and I was like, you know, you know that's the senator or whatever, like of this the state senator, and it was like, yeah.

So one of the kids um was one of the John Adams uh kids that did the the first year of the mural, um, the sandel at wall of inspiration, and um she was like, Well, I met a senator and I met the mayor, and so because Jimmy came down to the uh to the wall when we did uh um it was a part of the the neighborhood uh gathering.

And so the thing about that is when I was going to John Adams, I didn't get a chance to meet no mayor, no senator, no city council, and I just want you guys to know how important it is for you guys to be present, especially when there's young people, because when they see you and they're able to touch you and talk to you, then they believe they can be that too.

And so that's one of the things that we want to do in the community is bring people together, leave with love, and uh be as positive as we can be, and to show appreciation because you guys don't have to do the things that you do have, and this is the thankless job.

And so we just want to say thank you.

I have some comments from council members, if you would stay.

I have a comment from Councilman Lineweber.

Thank you for coming today, really.

I mean, we usually get a list of laundry list items um of things going on in our city, which are necessary.

I mean, we do need to hear about those things.

But bringing the positive message has been just really, really enjoyable.

And I have been so glad that I've had opportunities to come and participate with you.

Now, I I get really busy trying to run my business and do this and all these other kinds of things.

But I wanted to tell you directly that if you ever really wanted or needed me at an event, you send me a personal email and say, whatever you can do, please make this event.

Okay.

Because you guys do so much.

Yeah, it's hard to pick, right?

So you that's why I'm having you clarify like where would my time best be used to be show support, because I support you guys a thousand percent.

I just can't go to a thousand programs.

Right.

And so I just wanted to clearly state.

I mean, thank you.

Great job.

And we need more of this kind of stuff.

And um, I I make it a commitment that I I want to I want to commit to time when you need me to be at certain things, just make that clear, okay?

And I will do everything I can to be a part of that.

Thanks.

Councilman Hinge.

Thank you.

Thanks, D.

Um, you all are demonstrating profoundly positive leadership.

And I really commend you.

And um, it makes me a little teary, quite frankly.

Um, whether my fellow council members know this or not, you have bookended our day.

Brandon Shoop, Pastor Brandon of Story Church gave our invocation today.

And he is one of the founding members of Men of Influence.

Yeah.

And one body and concrete coach, concrete coyote coming here today to share what you're doing, serving the community, feet on the ground, doing the work, loving the people, leading with love, absolutely.

That is who you are.

That is who all of you are.

And um I'm just so deeply personally touched and appreciative.

You I think a lot of you were here for a lot of the meeting, and it was a tough meeting today.

We are dealing with tough things, and you saw some very interesting votes and people really grappling with very challenging issues in their best way in the service of this city.

Yep, this is hard work, and the work you are doing on the ground every day, and the way you're leading with love, is so inspirational.

And um, I applaud you and I thank you.

I give you my gratitude, all of you, for being here and um bringing positivity, and yes, we are still neighbors.

Thank you.

Councilman Risley.

Thank you, Madam President.

I also wanted to thank all of you that uh came and spoke today.

Um, as some of my colleagues have said, it's it's the type of work that you're doing that really makes the difference in the community.

We can sit here and we can try to make good decisions and we can grapple with difficult situations, but it's really the work that you're doing, the boots on the ground, the impact that you have every day, day in and day out in the community that should be the inspiration to us.

And so I just want to thank you for those uh efforts and for your hard work um to do the things that really need to be done.

If more people would step up to the plate in the way that you do, I think our community would even be stronger.

So thank you.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Steve Lightfoot.

Hi, I'm sorry I was so uh upset there because uh this is the second time I've been shuffled to the very end of the line.

And I'm probably one of the more significant speakers you'll ever have on this podium.

What I'm doing with my life is exposing John Lennon's murder.

You've probably seen the pink van riding around town Lennon Murder Truth.com.

Until we care about who killed John Lennon, we're being led around by the nose by a man named Stephen King who enjoys our fall from grace.

He's part of the reason why we have so many school shootings.

He wrote about them in the 70s when there were none.

He's part of the fear campaign, the government behind.

And uh all we can do about it is protest people.

You have your chance on John Lennon's birthday right here at City Hall.

I know a lot of the protesters here months ago were paid.

I need real support.

If we can't come together over John Lennon's murder evidence, we're pathetic.

Now, because I've been shuffled around to the end of the line, I'm gonna bring up some other untidy things.

Uh several several hours after a policeman interviewed me up on top of a hill, my van was spray painted and graffiti with Nazi swastikas.

Very tepid uh efforts by the police to look into the matter after.

Don't know who did it, but it was funny that I talked to a policeman just hours before.

And then my beautiful website, Van Zal sloganed.

Um you talk about trust.

You know, everywhere I've lived, I've lived in a lot of places.

When I see a lot of potholes, I think somebody's digging swimming pools when they should be fixing potholes.

And if you really want the public's trust, respect them enough to take care of your roads better.

It's a disgrace.

You need to use better aggregate, better asphalt.

You need to mix the aggregate better.

You need to take these streets more seriously.

You've got a monster sized set of potholes on 24 East, just south of 21st Street, they're parallel to West Colorado Avenue.

You've got some on upper Uinta, terrible.

You got a lot of terrible potholes.

If you really want to get the public's trust, you've got to fix those.

If you want to take the side of the cover-up crowd and let Stephen King get away with John Lennon's murder, well, you're no better than Gasoline Alley, who fired me because of who I am.

You know, they own five restaurants, bars right downtown.

Uh and uh they withheld $450 from my first check, hoping I'd quit.

Then they withheld $350 for my second check, hoping I'd quit.

And when I demanded my money, they couldn't really fire me for that.

That's within my rights.

Well, they found another way to fire me making up stories.

And what uh what is one group of people doing owning the very ground zero, five bar restaurants downtown?

That's kind of weird, if you ask me.

That ends our public comment or our citizens' discussion or citizens' comment this morning.

And um also ends our city council meeting for today.

So we are adjourned.